National Policy on Education, 1986

An overhaul of the system of planning and the management of education will receive high priority. The guiding considerations will be:

1. Evolving a long-term planning and management perspective of education and its integration with the country's developmental and manpower needs;

2. Decentralisation and the creation of a spirit of autonomy for educational institutions;

3. Giving pre-eminence to people's involvement, including association of non-governmental agencies and voluntary effort;

4. Inducting more women in the planning and management of education;

5. Establishing the principle of accountability in relation to given objectives and norms.

The Central Advisory Board of Education will play a pivotal role in reviewing educational development, determining the changes required to improve the system and monitoring implementation. It will function through appropriate Committees and other mechanisms created to ensure contact with, and co-ordination among, the various areas of Human Resource Development. The Departments of Education at the Centre and in the States will be strengthened through the involvement of professionals.

A proper management structure in education will entail the establishment of the Indian Education Service as an All-India Service. It will bring a national perspective to this vital sector. The basic principles, functions and procedures of recruitment to this service will be decided in consultation with the State Governments.

State Governments may establish State Advisory Boards of Education on the lines of CABE. Effective measures should be taken to integrate mechanisms in the various State departments concerned with Human Resource Development.

Special attention will be paid to the training of educational planners, administrators and heads of institutions. Institutional arrangements for this purpose should be set up in stages.

District boards of Education will be created to manage education up to the higher secondary level. State Governments will attend to this aspect with all possible expedition. Within a multi level framework of educational development, Central, State and District and Local level agencies will participate in planning, co-ordination, monitoring and evaluation.

A very Important role must be assigned to the head of an educational institution. Heads will be specially selected and trained. School complexes will be promoted on a flexible pattern so as to serve as networks of institutions and synergic alliances to encourage professionalism among teachers to ensure observance of norms of conduct and to enable the sharing of experiences and facilities. It is expected that a developed system of school complexes will take over much of the inspection functions in due course.

Local communities, through appropriate bodies, will be assigned a major role in programmes of school improvement.

Non-government and voluntary effort including social activist groups will be encouraged, subject to proper management, and financial assistance provided. At the same time, steps will be taken to prevent the establishment of institutions set up to commercialise education.

[Educational tribunals, fashioned after Administrative Tribunals, will be established at the national and state levels]*.